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The result compares to a year-ago profit of 56 cents per share and a 19 cent per share profit in the second quarter.

The results included several “one-time” items, as had been expected. Among these were a 28 cent per share hit related to a settlement of litigation over the 2008 acquisition of Merrill Lynch, an $800 million charge related to U.K. taxes, and a $1.9 billion accounting oddity known as a “valuation adjustment”–reflected as a loss–due to improvement in how credit markets evaluate Bank of America’s ability to pay its debts

Citing higher deposits and mortgage originations, CEO Brian Moynihan stated, “Our strategy is taking hold even as we work through a challenging economy and continue to clean up legacy issues.”

Revenues of $22.59 billion were slightly better than the $21.89 billion expected by analysts, and slightly higher than year ago and third quarter 2011 revenues, which were $22.49 billion and $22.42 billion, respectively.

Wells Fargo analyst Matt Burnell argued in a research note that Bank of America’s trading performance “fell slightly below peers.” He saw net interest margin results as positive and added that “credit continues to slowly mend.” Bank of America “performs in line with peers today on these results,” he wrote.

Deutsche Bank analyst Matt O’Connor saw mortgage-related claims against the bank–which has been the overriding issue for Bank of America for the past two years–as having “stabilized a bit.” New claims were down off a “very high” second quarter level, as outstanding claims rose 12%, O’Connor noted. The analyst also saw an “incremental positive” in management’s statement that losses from legal claims against problem mortgage securities could exceed reserves by $6 billion, saying it implied less risk “than some feared.” Wells Fargo’s Burnell referred to buyback trends as “mixed.”

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